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NavSource Online: "Old Navy" Ship Photo Archive

CSS FannyexFanny (1861)

Awards, Citations and Campaign RibbonsCivil War Medal

Screw Steamer:

Built date and location unknown

Launched, date unknown

United States Army steamer Fanny was captured by the Confederates in Loggerhead Inlet, N.C., 1 October 1861

CSS Fanny participated in the battles of Roanoke Island, 7-8 February 1862, and Elizabeth City, N.C.

Final Disposition, run aground, 10 February 1862, and blown up by her captain who escaped with his crew to shore
"Civil War Naval Chronology 1861-1865," Naval History Division, 1966:

3 August 1861 -- John La Mountain made first ascent in a balloon from Union ship Fanny at Hampton Roads to observe Confederate batteries on [Sewalls]
Point, Virginia—a small beginning for the potent aircraft carrier in the tri-dimensional Navy of the twentieth century.

26 August 1861 -- Squadron under Flag Officer Stringham, USS Minnesota,
USS Monticello,
USS Pawnee,
Revenue Cutter Harriet Lane, US tug Fanny, and two transports carrying about 900 troops under Major General Butler,
departed Hampton Roads (later joined by
USS Susquehanna and USS Cumberland) for Hatteras Inlet,
NC, for first combined amphibious operation of the war. Hatteras Inlet was the main channel into Pamlico Sound and the most convenient entrance for blockade runners
bringing supplies to the Confederate Army in Virginia. The Navy early recognized the strategic importance of the inlet and invited the Army to cooperate in its capture.
The operation was designed to check Confederate privateering and to begin the relentless assault from the sea that would divert a large portion of Confederate manpower
from the main armies.

US tug Fanny, Lieutenant Crosby, reported the capture of the blockade running sloop Mary Emma at the headwaters of the Manokin River,
Maryland.

1 October 1861 -- Confederate naval forces, including
CSS Curlew,
CSS Raleigh, and
CSS Junaluska. under flag Officer William F. Lynch, CSN, captured steamer Fanny in Pamlico Sound with Union troops on board. Colonel
Claiborne Snead, CSA, reported: "The victory was important in more respects than one. It was our first naval success in North Carolina and the first capture made by our
arms of an armed war- vessel of the enemy. and dispelled the gloom of recent disasters. The property captured [two rifled guns and large amount of army stores] was
considerable, much needed, and highly esteemed. . ."

10 February 1862 -- Following the capture of Roanoke Island, a naval flotilla, including embarked Marines, under Commander Rowan in
USS Delaware, pursuing Flag Officer Lynch's retiring Confederate naval force up the Pasquotank River, engaged the gunboats and
batteries at Elizabeth City, North Carolina.
CSS Ellis was captured and
CSS Sea Bird was sunk;
CSS Black Warrior, Fanny, and
Forrest were set on fire to avoid capture; the fort and batteries at Cobb's Point were destroyed.

"Bombardment of Forts Hatteras & Clark, by the U.S. Fleet"
"Under the command of Flag Officer Silas H. Stringham, on the 28th and 29th of August 1861" A colored lithograph by J.P. Newell after a drawing by Francis Garland,
Seaman in USF Cumberland, published by J.H. Buford, Boston, Massachusetts, 1862.
Features identified below the image are (from left to right):
USS Susquehanna;
tug Fanny;
Fort Hatteras;
USS Harriet Lane;
Fort Clark;
USS Cumberland;
steamer Adelaide;
USS Minnesota;
steamer George Peabody;
USS Wabash;
USS Pawnee; and
USS Monticello.
Courtesy of the U.S. Navy Art Collection, Washington, D.C.
US Naval History and Heritage Command Photo # 66576-KN (Color)

US Naval History and Heritage Command

92k

Port side view of Fanny from "Harper's Weekly," 19 October 1861. It is not clear, however, if this was actually Fanny's appearance, as other contemporary drawings (in Frederick Stansbury Haydon's "Military Ballooning During the Early Civil War," for example) show a similar, but definitely different, ship,

Fabio Pena

208k

Starboard side view of Fanny under way, courtesy of the Hampton Roads Naval Museum.

Fabio Pena

64k

Sketch and illustration of James H. Raymond capturing the flag of CSS Fanny at Elizabeth City, N.C., 10 February 1862.